Sneaker mysteriously disappeared from his Sacramento, Cailfornia, home in 1996.
But last week the black long haired moggie was given to Sacramento's Animal Care Services.
An employee scanned him for a microchip, a routine procedure, and tracked down his rightful owner.
Allison MacEwan of Seattle said she had placed newspaper ads and gone door-to-door with fliers in a futile search for her lost cat a decade ago.
Officials said they were not sure how the cat wound up in Sacramento.
Sneakers was a childhood pet of Mrs MacEwan’s daughter who was four years when the cat began his adventure.